IBM claims supercomputer speed crown

Released on = October 22, 2004, 2:30 pm

Press Release Author = IBM Corporation

Industry = Computers

Press Release Summary = IBM claims supercomputer speed crown
IBM's BlueGene/L is now the fastest supercomputer in the world, according to company researchers.

Press Release Body = IBM claims supercomputer speed crown
IBM's BlueGene/L is now the fastest supercomputer in the world, according to company researchers. The computer, measured against the industry-standard LINPACK benchmark, was able to turn in a sustained a performance of 36.01 teraflops. That edges it ahead of the three-year-old top mark of 35.86 teraflops for NEC's Earth Simulator in Japan. A teraflop equals a trillion floating point operations per second

Designed in close collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a new approach to ultra-powerful supercomputing, BlueGene/L is 1/100th the physical size (320 vs. 32,500 square feet) and consumes 1/28th the power (216KW vs. 6,000KW) compared to the Earth Simulator.

IBM says the BlueGene/L underlying design is adaptable to a range of applications and will be more affordable than current supercomputing resources thanks to smaller physical size and greater power efficiency. IBM, Livermore and other initial Blue Gene/L clients (ASTRON, Argonne National Laboratory and AIST) are currently exploring a growing list of applications including hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, climate modeling and financial modeling.

IBM's team of engineers and researchers continues to expand and test the system in anticipation of the upcoming publication of the Top500 Supercomputer list.

Web Site = http://www.ibm.com

Contact Details = IBM Corporation
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